Student Loan Debt And Military Service: Benefits And Considerations – At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has created historic unemployment and economic hardship. Even before the pandemic, many student loan borrowers faced repayment burdens or debt traps well in excess of 10% of take-home income, and they were unable to keep up with monthly interest rates (Farrell, Greig, and Sullivan 2020). Beginning in March 2020, the government suspended federal student loan payments and interest accrual to ease the financial burden of the pandemic. In addition to this temporary relief, policymakers have proposed permanent forgiveness of federal student loans, which account for approximately 92% of total student loan debt (Amir, Teslow, and Borders 2020).

In this insight, we use executive bank and credit bureau data to estimate how the benefits of different debt cancellation options would be distributed according to household income, the time remaining for borrowers to pay off their debt, and the race and ethnicity of the borrower.

Student Loan Debt And Military Service: Benefits And Considerations

Student Loan Debt And Military Service: Benefits And Considerations

We looked at four scenarios: (1) general cancellations of up to $10,000 in each debtor’s balance; (2) cancellations of up to $50,000 of debt for those with incomes below $125,000; (3) cancellations for For those earning less than USD 75,000, the subsidy up to USD 25,000 is canceled and phased out to USD 100,000; (4) up to USD 50,000 is canceled and the same income as Scenario 3 is phased out.

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Based on our linked bank and credit bureau data, we used individual borrowers’ student debt balances, annual income, and debt repayment patterns in 2016 to calculate several aspects of these hypothetical cancellation scenarios. First, how much debt will be canceled? Second, how is the canceled debt distributed across the income distribution—how much is high-income versus low-income households? Third, how much of the canceled debt is held by people who are expected to pay back their loans on time, rather than by people who may never be able to repay their loans in full? Finally, how is canceled debt distributed across racial and ethnic groups?

We find that income cuts significantly reduce the total amount of debt forgiveness and make cancellations less regressive, while all cancellation scenarios we study distribute relief by race among borrowers in roughly the same way. The $10,000 universal cancellation will forgive about a quarter of all student loan debt, while the $50,000 income limit cancellation will forgive half of all debt. A $25,000 income cancellation phase-out cancels the same amount of debt as a $10,000 general cancellation. While income targets make cancellations less regressive, cancellations also disproportionately benefit middle- and upper-income households. The reason for this relative regression is that higher-income households carry greater debt, often from professional or graduate degrees. Conversely, more aggressive income targets do not necessarily lead to a larger share of relief for borrowers caught in debt traps or facing long repayment terms. However, raising the total amount that can be canceled does slightly increase the share of forgiveness received by borrowers with long repayment terms. The proportion of canceled loans received by race and ethnicity is largely unaffected by income targets and reflects the proportion of total debt held by race and ethnicity.

For example, the gradual cancellation of $25,000 of income between $75,000 and $100,000 resulted in about the same total amount of debt forgiven as the general cancellation of $10,000 of debt (28% vs. Low-income borrowers provide $3.85 for every dollar given to high-income borrowers. A $50,000 cancellation cancels more debt (39% of all debt) than the same phase-out, and is slightly more regressive, but could be a better option for low-income borrowers, those facing debt traps, or long repayment terms Borrowers and blacks and blacks offer more overall forgiveness. Latino borrowers.

It should also be noted that due to the limitations of our data, several options available to policymakers are not considered here. For example, forgiveness of graduate school debt may reduce the regressive nature of the forgiveness and lower the overall cost. Waiver of accrued interest may also be gradual, since people who can afford to pay their debts are less likely to accumulate large amounts of interest.

Aoc: Those Who Paid Off Student Loans Should Support Debt Forgiveness

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Finding One: The cancellation options considered would forgive 27% to 50% of all federal student loan debt.

Figure 1 shows the total amount of debt canceled in each case. Since we only look at take-home income in the checking account data, we convert the gross income limits of $75,000, $100,000, and $125,000 to net income limits of $54, 263, $72, 350, and $90, 438 assuming withholding tax rates 20%, and the additional payroll tax rate is 7.65%.

Student Loan Debt And Military Service: Benefits And Considerations

Removing the $50,000 income limit would forgive most of the total debt (50% of all debt), or $786 billion on top of $1.566 trillion. More aggressive income limits (such as phasing out incomes of $75,000 to $100,000) could significantly reduce the total debt canceled (39% of debt, or $606 billion), compared to the same $50,000 of debt that could be canceled by individuals . The phase-out of $25,000 of cancellations further reduced total debt forgiveness (28%, $446 billion), while the general elimination of $10,000 did not substantially reduce total forgiveness beyond that (27%, $422 billion) , although significantly lower forgiveness amounts are offered to individual borrowers. Taken together, these alternatives would result in outstanding federal and private student loans ranging from $919 billion to $1.283 trillion, unchanged from 2012-2014 levels.

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Note: Based on total outstanding student debt of $1.6 trillion. Assume that the gross income limit translates to a take-home limit based on a 20% federal tax withholding rate and a 7.65% payroll tax rate. “Income Restrictions” limit derestrictions to those earning less than $125,000 a year. “Phase-out” provides blanket cancellations for those earning less than $75,000 a year, and reduces cancellations as incomes rise so that those making more than $100,000 a year are not subject to cancellations.

Finding Two: Student debt cancellation is particularly beneficial to middle- and upper-income families, although income targeting can reduce the regressiveness of student debt cancellation.

We find that middle- or high-income households receive a disproportionate amount of debt forgiveness under all cancellation scenarios we considered, since higher-income households tend to hold more student debt. However, more aggressive revenue targets can make cancellation plans more progressive.

The left panel of Figure 2 shows the share of total cancellation fees for each income quintile and the income boundaries for each quintile.

Student Loan Debt Elimination

Two bar graphs. The bar chart on the left shows the distribution of cancellation fees by revenue quintile. The bar chart on the right shows the proportion of each quintile in which student debt was fully canceled.

Note: Based on balances as of November 2016. Earnings are take-home earnings deposited into your Chase checking account between December 2015 and November 2016. Income quintiles are based on the entire Chase Experian sample, including the sample that holds no student debt. “Income Restrictions” limit derestrictions to those earning less than $125,000 a year. “Phase-out” provides blanket cancellations for those earning less than $75,000 a year, and reduces cancellations as incomes rise so that those making more than $100,000 a year are not subject to cancellations. Assume that the gross income limit translates to a take-home limit based on a 20% federal tax withholding rate and a 7.65% payroll tax rate.

In the case of universal cancellations of $10,000 (shown in blue), only 12% of the cancellation fee went to the bottom quintile (i.e. the bottom 20% of earners), while 23% went to the top quintile one. With an income limit of $50,000 (green), the top quintile gets almost no forgiveness, since the top quintile overwhelmingly exceeds the $125,000 gross income limit ($90,438 net income limit). However, only a slightly higher share (14%) of the relief went to the lowest income households, while a higher share went to tertiles and quartiles of borrowers. This is driven by higher balances held by higher income households, such as larger debts for vocational schools, medical schools, etc., as discussed in detail in Figure 3 below. The income phase-out and $25,000 and $50,000 cancellation scenarios were very similarly distributed across income groups, providing relatively more relief to one in five borrowers, while middle-income borrowers (one in five A 3) Still get about twice the amount as a fifth of the borrowers.

Student Loan Debt And Military Service: Benefits And Considerations

The right panel of Figure 2 shows the proportion of people in each quintile whose entire debt is forgiven. Universal cancellation of $10,000 would completely wipe out student loan debt for 48 percent of the lowest income group, compared to 32 percent of the highest income group. The $50,000 cancellation policy eliminated all debt for 87% to 90% of borrowers in the top three quintiles. Note that in this income range, the two $50,000 policies produce almost identical results, since the income limits for both cases are absent for most of quintiles 1 and 2 and quintile 3 any impact. The $25,000 option completely cancels out that range almost versus the $50,000 option (70-75%).

Programs For Military Members & Spouses

These dynamics are not surprising given the distribution of balances within each income quintile, as shown in Figure 3. For example, median debt

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